LIKE I CAN ━ Steve Harrington ✓

02 - THE THING

THE THING

LATER THAT WEEK, Matthew and Grayson were walking home later at night. It was November 6th and the sun had gone down not long ago. Using darkness as their cover, the two boys had their fingers linked, swinging their arms in between each other. Yeah, they were one of those couples.

"This is nice," Matthew mused, his voice soft with affection, "I like being able to do this. I wish... ugh."

"That it could be like this all the time?" Grayson said with a sigh, resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder softly as they walked. "Me too."

The two boys both felt that pain, not knowing what to say so just sitting in the silence. Walking through the thick cloak of darkness and just enjoying each other's company. Grayson really hoped that one-day things wouldn't have to be like this. That one day he would be free to love who he wanted to love no matter who that was.

He was shaken out of his wondrous thoughts when a rustling noise coming from the woods sounded around the boys. They both jumped apart from each other, scared they were about to be discovered.

When nothing else happened, Grayson sighed, "Probably just some rabbit or something. Let's just get back to your place, okay?"

"Your mom knows you're staying over?" Matthew asked with a raised eyebrow, already moving on from the odd occurrence. It was nighttime in the fall and they were surrounded by woodlands, so weird and eerie noises were to be expected. Besides, this was Hawkins, as if there would be anything more than a simple rabbit roaming those woods.

Grayson nodded, him and Matthew resuming their position of joined hands and the former's head on his boyfriend's shoulder. "Yeah, she thinks it's a little weird that I'm seventeen and still having sleepovers with my 'good friends,' but she still gave me the okay."

"Do you think she suspects anything?" There was a nervousness in Matthew's voice, a nervousness that filled Grayson with a vague sense of unease. It pained him to know the boy he (maybe) loved felt like they were in danger of being found out. Really, they were always in danger, but the fact that it sounded like it was weighing down on Matthew broke his heart. With his first boyfriend, he learned to care less about things like that (at least, he had before his worst fear had actually come true, but that was all said and done).

"She doesn't know anything, trust me," Grayson sighed, his voice quiet but still audible due to the soundless night. "I tell her things, just enough that she thinks I tell her everything so she has no reason to think I'm hiding anything from her. As far as she knows, I'm her perfectly-behaved son who trusts her with anything and everything."

Mattew chuckled slightly, "That's cruel. What about your dad?"

"I mean, he's my dad. We don't do touchy-feely shit. He doesn't ask about my day and I don't tell him. Simple as that." Grayson hated talking about his family. Sure, his parents still loved each other and he had food on the table, but something always felt wrong. There was always a certain tensity in his mother's voice when she spoke to her husband, something in the way she always made sure to have dinner on the table exactly when he came home from work, in the way she only has one photo of the family on display. They might have yelled at each other when Grayson was younger, but he can't remember. All he remembers is the family dog, a golden retriever named Huckleberry, cuddling with him late at night when he couldn't sleep. Grayson was never close with his dad, there was always something about him (at least, in recent years) that irked him. The last time he talked about his family with someone was... well, it was with Steve. Matthew had yet to know what lied beneath the thin sheen of the nuclear family disguise. Grayson might tell him one day, but he likes to keep his family under wraps.

"I get that," Matthew said with a sigh, "but at least you have a dad."

"Sorry, I know yours is a touchy subject," Grayson felt bad for hating his father when his boyfriend didn't even have one. A soldier, who died unceremoniously in a car accident after his service was already completed. Grayson remembers his boyfriend telling him something about the boy being maybe a year old, if that. He felt guilty, knowing he was lucky to have his parents.

Matthew just shrugged, "It's fine. I never even knew the guy. Ma talks about him like he walked on water or some shit, though, so he must've been pretty great at one point."

Although he was about to respond with something sentimental and loving, a glint of metal in the moonlight caught Grayson's eye. He put a hand out in front of his boyfriend's chest to stop him from moving forward. He pointed towards the object, asking, "What's that?"

"Uh, let's find out?" Matthew proposed, the statement coming out as more of a question as he took an unsure step forward.

Upon further inspection, the object was a discarded bicycle. It was the kind of bike that half of the pre-teens in Hawkins rode around on, so it was impossible to tell who the object belonged to.

"These bikes are like the middle school equivalent of a corvet, why would a kid just abandon it on the side of a road? That seems unlikely, doesn't it?" Grayson observed, picking up the bike by the handles. Before he could get a good look in, Matthew slapped it out of his hands. "What the hell, dude?"

"What if the kid this bike belongs to was like murdered or some shit? Can't they like use your fingerprints or something? What if that makes you a suspect?" Matthew warned in a rushed, concerned voice, "or do I just watch too much news from the city?"

"The latter," Grayson let out a small, breathy laugh, "It probably has a flat or something so the kid just abandoned it, kids do that shit, right?"

The other teen shrugged, "Maybe, I don't know. Maybe they stashed it and got picked up?"

"Whatever, it's not my bike and that's all that matters, I just wanna get back to yours," Grayson spoke, an underlying tone of suggestiveness in his voice causing his boyfriend to chuckle. "I've been resisting the urge to kiss you all day, you know."

"Well, day's over," Matthew noted, the bike abandoned as the two joked. Grayson had his arms around his boyfriend's neck, a short distance between them.

Just as Matthew was going to lean in and connect their lips, there was a bright flash of light and a distant scream.

"What the hell was that?" Grayson's voice was shaky, not liking the sound of that yell.

"I don't know, but let's get the hell out of here," Matthew suggested, grabbing the boys hand. So, they ran.

oof look at that! it's plot! uh, i promise steve will come into the story soon lmao im just tryna establish matthew and grayson's relationship